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Djivan Gasparyan

Djivan Gasparyan

Genre:

Folk

Traditional

Djivan Gasparyan (Jivan Gasparyan; Ջիվան Գասպարյան - born October 12, 1928) is an Armenian musician and composer. Gasparyan plays the duduk, a double reed woodwind instrument related to the orchestral oboe. Gasparyan is known as the "Master of Duduk".

Born in Solak, Armenia to parents from Mush, Gasparyan started to play duduk when he was six. In 1948 he became a soloist of the Armenian Song and Dance Popular Ensemble and the Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra. He has won four medals at UNESCO worldwide competitions (1959, 1962, 1973, and 1980). In 1973 Gasparyan was awarded the honorary title People's Artist of Armenia and in 2002, he received the WOMEX (World Music Expo) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Gasparyan has toured the world several times with a small ensemble playing Armenian folk music. Gasparyan has collaborated with many artists, such as Hossein Alizadeh, Sting, Erkan Ogur, Michael Brook, Peter Gabriel, Brian May, Lionel Richie, Derek Sherinian, Ludovico Einaudi, Boris Grebenshchikov, David Sylvian, Hans Zimmer and Andreas Vollenweider. Djivan Gasparyan and Hossein Alizadeh were jointly nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award for their 2006 collaboration album Endless Vision (an album featuring a trilingual arrangement and recording of Sari Galin).

Gasparyan played as part of the Armenian entry "Apricot Stone" by Eva Rivas at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo and became the oldest ever person to feature in a Eurovision Song Contest performance.